Kicking things off at the 2017 APL Armlifting World Championships (St. Petersburg, Russia), Dmitriy Burlakov proved he could hang with the big boys as he officially closed the Captains of Crush No. 3 gripper.

Burlakov is 40 years old and weighs 89 kg, at 176 cm tall, and he is a 10-year veteran in armwrestling. He attributes at least part of his strength to having been a delivery person handling heavy things, and he told IronMind that when he first encountered Captains of Crush (CoC) grippers, in 2012, he could close the CoC No. 2.